(Abbreviated) Luck-o-Meter 26-27 - Gameweek 9

 

Because I've been crazily 'busy' all week, travelling for much of it, and suffering a woefully dodgy Internet connection even during the scant occasions when I could hunker down in my room,.... I have to skip my usual detailed discussion of the gameweek's most notable events, and just do a very quick summary.

This could be the way to go from now on: more concise, more economical of time....

There weren't many rattlings of the woodwork this week (about the only gameweek this season so far where that could be said), although there were fierce strikes from Mbeumo, Ndiaye, and Wirtz that very nearly went in (the first two helped on to the frame of the goal by vital fingertips from Penders and Verbruggen). It was a fairly quiet week for goalkeepers too, with only Verbruggen, Henderson, Lammens, and Hornicek having to do much to earn their keep.

The refereeing was again pretty abysmal. Dalot's trip on Estevao was a very clearcut penalty inexplicably ignored, as was Timber's holding on Isak as he tried to reach Wirtz's floated cross. Liverpool were further abused when a trip on Macallister in the second-half was quickly followed by some more holding on Gakpo as he chased Macallister's chip into the box: both fairly 'soft' fouls, but very clearly fouls, nevertheless. I thought Brighton were fortunate to escape the handball shout against Dunk at the end of the first-half too: yes, the ball pinged on to his arm off his body (off his other hand?) very quickly, but.... he had to a chance to react, and he did:... by moving his hand towards the ball. Mateta's sending-off was a bit harsh for me (I'm not surprised Palace appealed against it): a contact on the back of the heel always looks bad, but there was little force in it and it appeared completely accidental: particularly so early in the game, a yellow card would have been the appropriate punishment. On the other hand, it is quite unfathomable how Lisandro Martinez's and Jacob Ramsey's terrible fouls were considered only second yellows rather than straight reds. Martinez's obviously premeditated forearm smash across Fofana's jaw should have been a 'violent conduct' three-game ban offence. And oh yes, Vuskovic's stealing that square ball bound for Haaland at the far post and guiding it neatly into Verbruggen's arms was clearly a deliberate back-pass; and an indirect free-kick from 7 yards out should be nearly as good as a penalty - but again, inexplicably not given by Craig Pawson.

There were some very odd results too. City absolutely dominated Brighton after conceding that freakish early goal, and on any other day would have won 4-0 or 5-0. Credit to Brighton for an excellent defensive performance, but... they really didn't deserve even a point from that game. United also started well against Chelsea, and could have been comfortably ahead by half-time if Amad Diallo could remember where the goal was. Spurs could barely scrape a win against a 10-man Palace, Fulham stole a point they barely earned through a most unfortunate and uncharacteristic error from Suzuki, Liverpool absolutely battered Arsenal and will be perplexed as to how they didn't win the game (unfortunately, the answer appears to be that Premier League referees are still manifesting a heavy bias in Arsenal's favour!), Ipswich salvaged a somewhat surprising draw against a far superior (at least in the second-half) Hull, while Bournemouth and Everton only scraped narrow wins over Leeds and Newcastle.

I already pointed out on Monday that Cole Palmer was particularly hard done-by this week - only very narrowly missing out on both bonus points and defensive points (and a second penalty, and an assist,... and an open-play goal). He was clearly the 'Man of the Match' and came within an ace of an enormous FPL score,... but ended up with a relatively modest 8-point haul. Ain't no justice. I find it particularly galling and perplexing that he was cheated out of BPS recognition by two of his defenders... who had objectively poor games: they racked up enormous 'defcon' recognition largely by having to make so many recovery challenges to make amends for earlier mistakes (well, Acheampong perhaps not quite so much; but Fofana had the sort of game that makes you expect him to get dropped this weekend).

And how the hell does Maxim De Cuyper get the assist for the goal against City?? Clearly an 'assist' ought to be a deliberate action to facilitate the scoring of a goal - not just a ricochet. The Fantasy Gods really love that lad!!!

Konsa, Rogers, and Jackson are the only significantly owned players (well, Verbruggen has a good ownership number too, but probably wouldn't have been started by many people against City!) in a particularly eccentric-looking 'Team of the Week'. And, despite large numbers of people playing their Bench Boost (nearly 150,000) or Free Hit (well over 300,000) chips this week, it was yet another dismally low-scoring batch of games, producing a global average of just 47 points. Thus, it's clearly another 9 out of 10 on the 'Luck-o-Meter' (very nearly a 10!!!).